The Origin of The Fox (1940) by Irwin Hasen

The Fox © current copyright holders

The Fox was created by writer Joe Blair and artist Irwin Hasen, and this story is his first appearance and origin from Blue Ribbon Comics #4 (June 1940). Hasen also worked on Johnny Thunder, the JLA, The Flash and The Green Lantern.

Irwin was frequently complimented in print by a Alex Toth who also illustrated some Fox stories for Red Circle Comics back in the '80's (you can see one here).

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Fortunately the goofy costume with the shirt shelves sticking out morphed into a more traditional crime-fighting costume over the course of the strip. As it stands, this story has a nice Bob Burden feel about it - one would almost expect The Flaming Carrot to show up!

Happy Birthday To the Periodic Table

On this day in 1869, Dmitry Mendeleev was a Russian chemist who developed & published his first version of the periodic table of the elements. In his final version (1871) he left gaps, foretelling that they would be filled by elements not then known, and even predicting the properties of three of those elements. link

Here are some of the more interesting periodic tables out there:



Comic Books

And here's the entry for our favourite element:




SciFi & TV


Superpowers


Smells


Imaginary Elements


Watch short videos of the elements by real scientists

Prisoners of Gravity (1993): The Sandman Interviews

Watch The Sandman Interview Episode

For those outside of Ontario, the public broadcasting station TVO (TV Ontario) is a well keep secret. They've recently posted a vast archives of old series they produced (ala, no 'Nightmusic'!), many of which will be of interest to readers of this blog.

One of the best series was Prisoners of Gravity that ran from 1989 to 1994. It was hosted by Rick Green (of The Frantics comedy troupe fame - sort of a Canadian version of Monty Python).

About Prisoners of Gravity:

Prisoners of Gravity, the acclaimed comic book and science fiction news magazine series, is not television. It's the world's orbital oracle. It's the future now. Trapped in geosynchronous orbit, unable to escape the planet he's convinced is hurtling toward self-destruction, Commander Rick (Rick Green) commandeers the airwaves to transmit his weekly pirate broadcasts. He explores crucial issues of the late twentieth century in the language of the faithful: science fiction, comics, computers, fantasy, and horror, all respectfully recognized in the series as adult art forms. He interviews these genres' writers, artists, and filmmakers, focusing on a different theme in each program: politics, war, fears, dreams, addictions, children, new worlds, and even the current popularity of dinosaurs.

Watch The Sandman Interview Episode

About the episode: This week Commander Rick profiles the comic book series that everyone from Norman Mailer to the girl next door is reading - "The Sandman." Featuring the key creators who've worked on "The Sandman": writer Neil Gaiman, editor Karen Berger, cover artist Dave McKean, and story artists Charles Vess, P. Craig Russell, Jill Thompson, Mike Dringenberg and Kelley Jones. Plus, a glowing tribute from science fiction writer Harlan Ellison who wrote the introduction to "The Sandman" graphic novel, "Season Of Mists." 28:50 min

The rest of the TVO archives are HERE

The Frantic's Mr. Canoehead:

Spores From Space by Frank Frazetta (1951)

Mystery In Space #1 (April-May, 1951) © DC Comics
Story by Gardner Fox; Art by Frank Frazetta

The Atomic Surgeons put a lot of work into cleaning up the original scan. Enjoy!


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The Best Book On Wally Wood That You'll Never Get A Copy Of

This catalogue has produced for an exhibit put together by Florez and Frederic Manzano last year at Casal Solleric . The softcover version I saw is a thick 352 pages with dimensions of 24 cm x 32 cm. It has no ISBN or price, and was, apparently, only for sale at Casal Solleric and their partnered museum shops in a limited press run.

It's full of jaw-droppingly gorgeous reproductions, many from the original art, of some of Wood's best known pieces, and lots of more obscure items.

More images here

Thanks to Mark Schultz for the image and info!

Vampires of the Void! By Wally Wood & Joe Orlando (1951)

Vampires of the Void! By Wally Wood & Joe Orlando (1951)

Another Kenton of the Star Patrol story from Strange Worlds #4 (Sept. 1951). The GCD credits the art to Wally Wood and Joe Orlando, but it looks more like the work of Orlando with Wood probably doing some key layouts & figure inking. No matter who did what it still looks great!

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© the current copyright holders

Five Years early there was another story entitled, Vampires of the Void!, starring the Justice Society of America battling metal-eating monsters from space. No offense to Kenton, but when the chips are down my money is on Joe Kubert's mace-wielding Hawkman.

Go read The Lost Kingdom of Athala by Wally Wood from the same issue as this Keaton story!

Beware of The Bug-Belle! (Weirdest Lois Lane Story Ever!)

This story is so wrong on so many levels. Kafka anyone?


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Where is my mini-series of Scorpion-Lois? Hello DC web comics!








Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #69 (Oct. 1966). © DC Comics
Script: E. Nelson Bridwell; Art: Kurt Schaffenberger

“The oriental hornet has built-in "solar cells" that generate electricity from sunlight—a first in the animal kingdom, according to a new study.

Scientists already knew that the hornet species, for unknown reasons, produced electricity inside its exoskeleton. Researchers recently went a step further by examining the structure of the hornet's exoskeleton to find out how the electricity is produced.

Their research revealed that pigments in the hornet's yellow tissues trap light, while its brown tissues generate electricity. Exactly how the hornets use this electricity is still not entirely understood.”

Read the rest of the story at National Geographic News.

Abstract: The Oriental hornet worker correlates its digging activity with solar insolation. Solar radiation passes through the epicuticle, which exhibits a grating-like structure, and continues to pass through layers of the exo-endocuticle until it is absorbed by the pigment melanin in the brown-colored cuticle or xanthopterin in the yellow-colored cuticle. The correlation between digging activity and the ability of the cuticle to absorb part of the solar radiation implies that the Oriental hornet may harvest parts of the solar radiation. In this study, we explore this intriguing possibility by analyzing the biophysical properties of the cuticle. We use rigorous coupled wave analysis simulations to show that the cuticle surfaces are structured to reduced reflectance and act as diffraction gratings to trap light and increase the amount absorbed in the cuticle. A dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) was constructed in order to show the ability of xanthopterin to serve as a light-harvesting molecule.

Ref.: Solar energy harvesting in the epicuticle of the oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis). 2010. Marian Plotkin, et al. Naturwissenschaften 97:1067–1076.